Supernova
by badjuju1
Summary: Bella wakes up from a dead sleep. She's having nightmares, hallucinations, experiencing the occasional deja vu & strange occurances are becoming commonplace. Read all the way to the end to figure out the mystery of what is happening to Bella. Supernova
1. Chapter 1

*****I do not own Twilight or any of the wonderful characters found within the Twilight Saga, this is simply my nod to the wonderful*** *****Stephenie Meyer for her amazing and addicting stories. It's like my own little add on to the saga*******

**This story takes place perhaps in the middle of the saga, or maybe it takes place after the saga ends....or who knows, it might just take place before the saga................OR it very well could take place in another dimension that was previously not explored in the saga. You'll have to read to the end in order to find out for sure.**

**Enjoy the story!**

**SUPERNOVA**

CHAPTER ONE: Strange Dreams

"Jake, are you awake?" I shook his arm and asked urgently. "I just had the strangest dream."

"Sure, sure Bells," Jake mumbled groggily, though he was still half asleep, and snuggled up closer. "What's up?"

"Well, I don't even know how to describe it really. It was just so strange and it felt _so_ real, that's the strangest thing about it of all!" I replied, my voice a little unsteady.

Jacob couldn't help but smile when he saw the dazed expression on my face as I was trying to remember the dream well enough that I could properly explain it to him. "Oh come on, you woke me up for this so you gotta tell me about it now," he implored.

"Hmmm," I sighed. "If I tell you about it, do you promise not to laugh at me?"

Jacob grinned at me again and said "Well, I'll do my best, but I ain't making any promises."

At that, I pursed my lips and shot a glare at him, "Jacob Black, I swear if you laugh at me, I will never speak to you again!" I resolutely stated.

"Sure, sure. I promise not to laugh then," Jacob said in a defeated tone. "Man, you just had to go and spoil all my fun though, didn't you?" he said jokingly and winked.

"Okay, I know this is going to sound crazy," or it sure seemed to be about a hundred kinds of crazy in my own mind. "There were vampires and some kind of werewolves, or maybe....I don't know, shape-shifters, I'm not really sure exactly, and Jake, you were one of the wolves!"

Jacob snorted in an effort to hold back his laughter and barely managed to contain it, but then he regained his composure and said "Vampires? Werewolves? Shapeshifters? Woah Bells, you weren't kidding about the crazy, but hey, it was just a dream. So what was so real about it anyhow?"

I then stopped to think for a minute, collect my thoughts and figure out the best way to fully describe all that had happened in the dream. It was just that it was so detailed and in depth, it couldn't have possibly all just run through my mind in the course of a few hours of unconsciousness, could it? In all honesty the dream felt like it stretched out over the course of a few years. Jacob was also still looking pretty groggy, or more accurately, although I thought he seemed like he was interested in hearing about the dream, he was obviously on the verge of passing back out. After all, he'd only been asleep for a few hours when I had woken him. "I don't know Jake," I finally responded. "It was just a silly dream I guess and I was a little disoriented when I first woke up from it, that's all. Sorry for disturbing you though, I'll leave you alone and let you get some more rest. I'm going to attempt to get back to sleep myself."

Mumbling through a stifled yawn, and already beginning to doze off, Jacob said, "Okay, but tell me more about it later if you want. I'll try not to laugh, although it does sound like a good storyline for a horror movie," he teased. "Night Bells, love you crazy girl."

Still shaken by my dream and not actually sure I could get relaxed again any time soon, I responded "Night Jake, I love you too. Sorry again for waking you up!" But by the time I'd even finished the sentence he was all but snoring and fast on his way to getting back to his own dreams.

After thinking more about the dream, I decided it was probably best not to explain the whole dream to Jake. I thought it might just make him feel a little bit insecure or jealous and figured I ought to just forget I ever had the dream in the first place. "Vampires huh," I mused to myself as I tried to fall back asleep. Try as I might to get comfortable though, I just couldn't find the right position to lay in so that I could manage to go back to sleep. So I tossed and turned for hours on end. Meanwhile, my sleeping boyfriend was oblivious to this fact as he was off in his own personal dreamland. As I tried to force myself back into a sleeping state, I simply could not erase one image in particular from my mind. It was a face I had never seen before, or not that I could remember having ever set my eyes on, and this was no easily forgettable face. This was a face to remember, perfectly chiseled features, gorgeous topaz colored eyes, and the person-no, make that _vampire_the face belonged to apparently went by the name Edward Cullen. I liked the sound of it, it had a nice ring to it, but never mind, it was just a dream I tried to tell myself. So I laid there and continued trying in vain to push the image from my mind.

*****I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!*****


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO: My Reality

Jacob. My Jacob. I'm not sure what I did to get so lucky or deserve such a loving and wonderful guy like Jake. He was always there for me any time I needed him with a big goofy grin or a warm embrace. He was the yin to my yang and I just felt so comfortable around him. It was completely effortless. Which is saying a lot considering I normally feel so awkward around most people, but not with Jacob. We had known each other since we were kids, our fathers being long time friends and all. Back before I stopped visiting Charlie each year in the summertime....seemingly a lifetime ago, he and I were best buds. Charlie likes to joke about how we use to make mud pies together. Of course Charlie is simply thrilled about Jacob being my boyfriend. I think both he and Billy seem to get a real kick out of it as a matter of fact. Ever since I came back to Washington, Jake and I had been pretty much inseparable. If it hadn't been for him, I probably would have died of utter boredom in gloomy, rainy Forks. He's got such a wild adventurous side to him though that there really never is a dull moment with Jacob around.

One thing about Jake that stands out above all else, hands down, is the fact that he is absolutely, completely, one hundred percent crazy in love with me. I don't know exactly what it is about me that he is so infatuated about, but there is no getting around that fact. For a long time we were just friends. Mostly because I wasn't looking for more than friendship with him, but the boy was so persistent he finally broke down my guard and I just couldn't possibly tell him no anymore. That's not to say that I'm complaining about his persistence. He's good for me and I know that, plus I enjoy his company and I'd never want to give that up. I'd be a fool if I did. Besides, it certainly doesn't hurt that he's grown up to be a gorgeous man. It's pretty hard to ignore considering he loves wearing as few clothes as is legally possible in general. I would swear that the guy has something against shirts, but that's fine with me too. Abs like his are definitely not meant to be covered up and hidden and I'd venture to say that not too many women would be likely to disagree.

Yep, I'm a lucky girl. I don't know why, but I definitely am. He's all mine and he's got zero interest in even the thought of another female. So what on earth is wrong with me? Why can't I just be happy with this fact and forget the dream and most importantly, the face from the dream that has been haunting me lately? The perfect, pale, chiseled face.......Edward.

It's best not to let my mind wander there again though, it's pointless really. That was just a dream and Jacob is my reality. Not too shabby of a reality either, I reminded myself. Besides, who was ever going to love me like Jacob?

*****I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!*****


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE: Incident

"Hey Bells, you want me to answer the phone or let the machine get it?" Jacob asked.

"Go ahead and answer it please Jake. It's probably Charlie and you know how he gets if he doesn't hear from me often enough," I groaned. My father was so funny that way though, still so protective in his own way, even though I'm not a kid anymore and off living on my own, with Jacob of course. It was still early and we were still in bed sleeping when Charlie called.

So Jacob answered the phone since he was closer to it "Hey Charlie, how's it going?" apparently I was correct about who was calling. And then a few seconds later "Sure, she's right here," and then he handed the phone over to me.

"Hello," I greeted my father.

"Hey Bells, just calling to say hi and see what's new," Charlie replied nonchalantly. "You know, making sure you hadn't forgotten your old man."

"Oh you know I would never forget you, I mean come on, you're way too much of a pain in my neck to ever forget," I said jokingly in response.

"Well, anyhow, I thought maybe we could all get together for dinner sometime soon, like old times you know?" he inquired, his voice hopeful.

"Of course we can, when is a good time for you? We'll be there for sure," I declared.

"How 'bout this weekend, er, Saturday good for you?" he asked.

I didn't have any plans Saturday that I could think of. Besides, I hadn't cooked dinner for Charlie in quite some time and I was concerned about his poor eating habits taking a toll anyway, so I agreed with him, "Sure, Saturday sounds great. How does five o' clock sound?"

Never a man of many words, he was all too happy to get off the phone quickly, never mind the fact that _he_ was the one who called me, it was just his way. "Okay kid, see you five o' clock, Saturday, my place. Bye."

"Okay, see you then, bye," I replied and hung up the phone.

As I was off in my own world contemplating what I would make for dinner on Saturday, Jacob grabbed me and pulled me in close to give me a soft, sweet and passionate kiss. "Mmmmmm, I don't think I ever want to get out of bed now Jake," I said and smiled devilishly at him, "can we just stay here all day?" I pleaded.

So he kissed me again, though this time was a quicker kiss, less passionate than consoling. "Well Bells," he answered apologetically, "You know I wish we could, but I gotta get up and go to the garage to work on a car I'm fixing up for a friend of my dad." He gave me a longing look and I could tell he really did wish we could lay here together all day. "Sure, staying in bed with you is the more....oh I dunno, tempting option," he said with a sly smile. "But I gotta make the money somehow, to this point I haven't found a way to make it grow on trees," he joked, and then he gave me a quick peck on the forehead and got up out of bed in a flash.

"Aw Jacob, please?" I pouted and shot him a come hither look to try to tempt him back in between the sheets with me, but he wasn't having it. He just winked at me and headed out of the bedroom and into the bathroom across the hall.

Oh, I hated to see him go but I sure loved watching him walk away. I mentioned before that Jacob wasn't much for clothing. In fact if he could get away without having to wear it ever I think he just might go that route. Well lucky for me, he has that option to not wear it at home since we lived in our own little house on the reservation for the time being. His crazy gorgeous abs were just the beginning of his amazing body. He stood about 6'4" tall and of course he has that perfect russet complexion without a blemish on his skin. His back and shoulder muscles rippled when he walked and his perfect line of definition down his back along his spine led straight to his muscular behind, which by the way was also of perfect blemish free russet complexion.

I whined to myself in pity that he had to get up but then I figured I might as well get out of bed myself since I was so wide awake and he wasn't in here with me anymore. As I tossed the covers aside and began to sit up I had the strangest sensation....a crazy feeling that seemed like some sort of flashback. I was in a meadow with the vampire, Edward, from my crazy dream, and we were laying next to each other on the grass staring into each others' eyes. It flashed before my eyes and then was gone just as quickly as it arrived. I shook my head, slightly bewildered, and blinked my eyes repeatedly. _What the heck was that?_ I thought to myself, but then I just brushed it off. Must have been some memory of part of the dream. Oh well, didn't matter anyway. Dreams can just be a little weird and disconcerting sometimes I guess. So I ambled myself up to get dressed and just threw on some jeans and a random t-shirt.

"Hey baby," I called to Jacob, but got no response. Then I heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. He was in the shower, _duh_, I should have figured. I made my way down the hall and was heading into the kitchen when I thought I heard the sound of the sliding door being closed, so I cautiously peeked around the corner towards the door but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. _Well that's odd,_ I thought to myself and walked up to the door. I slid it open and in my bare feet stepped out onto the porch and scanned the front yard and down the street for anyone that might be out there but there was nothing, absolutely nobody. I stayed out there for a few minutes and continued to glance around for any sign of movement anywhere but it was totally quiet except for the sound of random cars in the distance and a few chirping birds. Staring out at the front lawn, I thought I noticed some blades of grass springing upward as if there had recently been something, or perhaps someone walking on the grass, but I chalked it up to my tendency for paranoia. _I'm sure it's nothing,_ I convinced myself and went back inside.

When I walked back into the kitchen, Jacob was there, a towel wrapped around his waist and water droplets still glistening on his bare chest, arms and back. "Hey Bells," he said with a confused look on his face. "Whatcha been doin' out there?"

"Oh nothing," I retorted. "I just thought I heard something is all. I could have sworn I heard the door closing when I was heading in here but I must have been hearing things, it's no big deal."

"Okay honey, I'm gonna get dressed and head to the garage then," he stated. Then he paused for a second and added as an afterthought, "Are you sure everything's okay though? You seem a little spooked."

"No I'm alright Jake. It's fine, I promise," I assured him. "Do you want anything for breakfast though? You must be hungry! Maybe some sausage, eggs and hashbrowns?" I offered.

"Y'know, that sounds great Bells, thanks! I am a bit starved now that you mention it," Jacob accepted graciously.

"Well good, then you go ahead and get dressed while I whip that up for you," I suggested as I looked at him adoringly.

As he headed back to the bedroom I got the contents I would need out of the fridge and cabinets to make breakfast. _Oh crap, _I thought to myself, _I need to refill the salt and pepper shakers!_ I grabbed my stepladder I kept in the kitchen for times like these when I didn't have statuesque Jacob around to get stuff for me that was out of my reach. I stepped on the little stool and extended my arm up towards the containers of salt and pepper but the plastic legs of the stool bent slightly causing me to lose my balance and tip over. I tried to catch myself by grabbing the counter but it was too late. I was toppling towards the floor head first. I could tell this would not be good, damn clumsy me. I began to scream and then I heard a loud _THUD_ as my head made contact with the hard tile of the kitchen floor. I could feel the blood trickling down my forehead and then my vision got blurry until it turned completely black. I could vaguely hear Jacob yelling down the hallway "Bella?!" in an urgent and concerned voice as I spiraled into unconsciousness.

*****I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!*****


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR: Voices

"Bella, wake up," I could hear a voice in the distance but couldn't make out who it belonged to. "Wake up Bella, we've missed you, won't you come back to us?" I had no idea who it belonged to but it was the most beautiful voice I had ever heard in my entire life.

And then another faint and distant voice, this one high pitched and sing songy, "Bella? Are you in there? Come on now, please wake up, you're my very best friend in the whole world and you're like a sister to me!" the owner of the voice exclaimed. How is it possible that I could be this person's best friend and yet have absolutely zero recognition of their voice? That just isn't logical. Nothing was making sense. Number one, I seemed to be trapped in some sort of deep sleep, yet I was still capable of hearing voices around me. Number two, I was feeling completely disoriented, I had no idea where I was or what was going on.

The high pitched voice then spoke up again, but didn't seem to be speaking to me this time, "I don't know about this, my visions are all off. I can't see anything for her anymore. I'm very worried though, she's not waking up and without being able to see any sort of future for her," I could hear her voice shake on the last word and she trailed off without finishing her sentence. Then almost as an afterthought and in such a low whisper you would have to strain to hear it, "Anyway, as I was saying, without being able to foresee anything for her in the future, there's a chance she might not-well, that she might not make it!" It sounded as if she were ready to break out into tears, of course here I was stuck in this half asleep-half awake unconscious stupor, so how could I possibly know if she was crying? And for that matter, why would she be crying? I don't even know who _she_is. Or any of the other voices I was hearing vague ramblings from all around me all of a sudden. And what was this talk of visions and foreseeing the future? That seemed a little odd to me as well.

Just then, I felt a cold hand that was as smooth as marble and hard as granite brush against my arm and then grab my hand. And then a cool set of equally smooth and hard lips kissed the top of my hand. "I love you forever Bella. Whether you make it through this or," he broke off his sentence as if he didn't want to finish it, but then continued on in a voice that was on the verge of cracking and breaking and possibly cutting out completely, "Or heaven forbid if this should end badly and you don't make it out of this alive. Either way, live or die, I will love you every last second of forever. I promised you that once and my word was true then and always will be." Then he stopped, seeming to try to regain his composure and then began speaking again in his perfect calm and soothing voice. "But please Bella, please don't leave me. I need you to make it for me if not for yourself. For all of us, for your family. We all love you and can't live without you. I hope you know you mean the world to us all."

The emotion in his voice was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I felt bad for the owner of this beautiful voice who obviously had me mistaken for someone he was in love with. I wanted to reach out and embrace him just to make him feel better. He was obviously hurting badly. I wanted to do something, but I couldn't move my arms or anything else for that matter. All I could do was lay there and listen, trapped inside the darkness of my mind. The two voices I had heard clearly began conversing with others whose voices were much too quiet for me to make out anything they were saying and then before I knew it, the voices were fading and getting farther and farther away until I heard one voice loud and clear, "Bells? Wake up!" It was Jacob, one voice I knew as well as my own,if not better. "Hey clumsy girl, you took quite the spill, are you still in there? Can you answer me?"

Right then, I opened my eyes wide and took in the scenery around me. I was in my kitchen on the floor and I had a killer splitting headache. How on earth did I get here? What the hell had happened to me just now? At that moment I noticed that I had blood running down off my forehead and into my eyes. Oh boy, well that made sense. I had another klutz incident and I must have hit my head right good and hard this time.

With a look of utter relief on his face at the fact that I woke up from my mini coma, Jacob pronounced, "Damn Bells, I think you're gonna need some stitches to heal up that gash on your noggin," and with that, he lifted me up off the floor and into his big warm and loving arms. "Come here Bells, honey, let me get you to a doctor." And on that note, he whisked me away to his car to get me to the nearest hospital.

*****I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!*****


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE: Hallucination

I felt like I was in a daze as Jacob drove me to the hospital. He had the gas pedal to the floor and the speedometer needle was teetering just at the maximum speed and bouncing as if it was trying to go even faster than it should or could go. "Jake, really, it's okay. I'm just such a klutz and this sort of thing happens to me all the time, you should know this by now," I said in a feeble attempt to reassure him that I was more or less fine. He wasn't having it. He knew me all too well and therefore could see through my facade, he was all too familiar with my self sacrificing tendencies. I just hated for anybody else to be caused any kind of stress or problems because of me.

"Oh sure, sure Bells. I know you're not the most graceful person ever, but you really cracked your head open good this time. I don't like the looks of it," he explained, and then added on, "And dammit Bells, keep pressure on the cut so you don't bleed out right here on the way to the hospital!"

Oh yeah, I had forgotten the towel he handed me to press against my wound, apparently every time my heart pumped, a fresh stream of blood would gush out of the gaping gash on my forehead. It was making me feel pretty lightheaded and then just as I went back to holding the towel to my head, I got the strangest feeling of deja vu. It was as if this moment had already happened, it sure felt like it had. I was looking out the window as we sped to our destination and caught a glimpse in the side view mirror of something that made me jump in my seat and just about made my heart pound right out of my chest, which wasn't helping with the bleeding either for that matter. I saw a human like being running down the street chasing the car and catching up to it, on foot, but no human I ever knew of could run that fast. Jake had the speedometer pegged at over 100 miles per hour so it wasn't even plausible that this could be a human being.

When he got close enough I could see that this person had bright gleaming red eyes and a bone chilling look of menace on their face. "Jake!" I exclaimed frantically, "hurry up, it's gaining on us!" I began to go into a massive panic attack, on the verge of hyperventilation and all.

"Oh no Bells, are you hallucinating or something? What are you going on about?" Jacob said in a confused tone of voice, "I told you that cut was worse than you thought!"

"It's....it's...a-a-a.....VAMPIRE!!" I screamed and then I cowered in my seat as if to protect myself from the danger that was fast approaching and gaining speed with every second that passed. As I was being completely taken over by my fear, I managed to somehow stop panicking for long enough to notice that Jacob was looking at me as if I was completely off my rocker. And then it hit me "Jake? Please tell me you see the creepy red eyed person trying to catch up to the car....you know, right there behind us there?"

He glanced around to see what I was so hysterically frantic about and it was obvious that he saw nothing. He only looked more confused at that point. He didn't even have to say a word to me for me to be able to tell he thought I was imagining things. "So you really don't see it?" I asked just to confirm that he really didn't see or sense anything, and just then I turned around and saw-nothing. Nothing but open road. No other cars, no people, no human like, albeit impossibly fast person chasing after the car. Nothing _at all_.

I glanced back in the side view mirror and again saw nothing. Whatever it was, it was gone now, if it had ever actually been there at all. I really needed to get to that doctor and quick since I was now hallucinating. "I'm sorry Jacob, I guess I hit my head harder than I thought. I don't see anything now either. I must have imagined it," I told him although I still felt a strange chill throughout my body and I also had goosebumps, but I just chalked that up to the loss of blood from my head wound. After a few more minutes I began to calm back down and before I knew it we were pulling into the parking lot of the hospital by the emergency entrance. When the car came to a complete stop and he turned off the engine, I unbuckled my seat belt and opened the door to let myself out, but Jake interjected, "Are you _sure_ you're okay to walk Bells? Maybe I should carry you."

"No, I think I'm okay to walk. But maybe just walk close to me in case I get dizzy or anything like that," I feebly responded.

So he walked beside me and put his arm around me to help hold me up in case I did pass out or something, but it was unnecessary after all. I managed to make it up to the emergency check-in desk without fainting.

"How may I help you?" asked the woman behind the desk before looking up and noticing my head. "Oh, pardon me, I see you've got a bit of a nasty cut on your forehead there, don't you?" she added while eyeing Jacob suspiciously from the corner of her eye.

_Oh great_, I thought, _now she's going to think I'm a battered woman_. Little did she know, the only person doing any battering to me was myself. "Yeah, I was standing on a step stool in my kitchen trying to reach up high and the legs bent," I could practically hear her thoughts already, she was still skeptically scrutinizing poor Jake. "At that point, because I'm just _oh so graceful_ I of course managed to land head first on the floor." I tried to add in some cheerful sarcasm so she would stop eyeballing Jacob as if he was some kind of monster or something.

"Okay hun, well, first things first. What's your name please?" asked the woman.

"Bella Swan," I answered. "Well, Isabella Swan actually," I corrected myself since Isabella was the name on my ID although I didn't like to be called by my full first name.

"Have you been seen here before Bella?" she asked.

"Oh yes, many times. I'm always getting myself scraped up," I jested.

"Alright, well let me look you up in our files and double check all your information. Oh, here we go, it looks like we just saw you last month. So, is all your information the same as it was then?" inquired the woman.

"Yeah, still living in the same place, same phone number, same everything," I confirmed.

"Okay then, I'll just need your insurance info please Miss Swan," she requested politely.

I handed over my card and she took the information and handed it back, took another look over the info before her on the computer screen and said with a satisfied look, "If you want to just take a seat right there in the waiting area, someone should be ready to escort you back within a few minutes." After a momentary pause, she tacked on "Oh yeah, and don't forget to keep pressure on that cut until you're ready to be seen."

I went and sat down by Jacob on a seat in the waiting area while keeping pressure on my forehead. Just as soon as I'd sat down, the emergency room door swung open which an orderly peeked their head out of and said, "Isabella Swan?" and when I immediately stood up, she said, "Isabella, is that you?"

"Yes, that's me," I responded.

"Okay Isabella, please come with me. I'll check your vitals and ask you a few questions and then a doctor will be right with you," she informed me.

I followed her back to one of the units in the emergency room where she went over the usual questions about how I came to hurt myself, yet again. There were questions about how bad the pain was on a scale of 1-10, all stuff I was use to, along with other random questions. Once she was done taking care of everything she needed to she told me to just wait there and a doctor would be in within a few minutes to get me stitched back up. As I sat there anxiously awaiting his or her arrival I perused the posters on the walls to kill time and then the door was opening up and in walked the doctor. Finally humpty dumpty would be put back together.

"Hello Isabella," said the doctor in a friendly tone. "So, we've got some stitching to take care of tonight do we?"

"Yes we do," I responded in a slightly embarrassed tone. "I managed to fall off of a step stool in my kitchen and land head first on the hard floor."

"Ah," he replied. "Well no worries. I'm Dr. Swanson and I'll get you all fixed up nice and quick."

I was sure Jacob must be getting anxious in the waiting room to see how I was doing. He always worried so much about me when I injured myself, which was fairly often. It didn't take too long to get the stitches in though and when Dr. Swanson had finished up, he handed me my discharge papers and said, "Okay Isabella, those stitches should pretty well take care of you and they are the type that will dissolve on their own, usually in a few weeks or so. However, if you have any problems at all and need to get restitched or anything like that, don't hesitate to come back in and see us."

"Okay, thanks", I said graciously.

"Be careful out there now Isabella," he suggested. "And try to take it easy while you're still healing."

Then I was on my way out the door, back to the waiting area where Jacob was sitting. "Well Bells, how'd it go?" he asked, obviously happy to see that I was back in one piece.

"Oh fine, it was no big deal, just a few stitches and voila," I responded nonchalantly.

"Well then Bells, let's get outta here," Jacob suggested anxiously. He never liked hanging around the hospital longer than necessary, so with that, we headed back home.

*****I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!*****


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX: Intertwined

We got back home from the hospital and along the way I had begged Jake to stay home for the day with me, using my injury as an excuse for needing him there. I had the day off work as it was, and obviously with my little incident I would have had to stay home anyway. Naturally Jacob agreed to stay home with me since he now felt that he had good reason to. You know, to take care of me and all. I couldn't help but playfully tease him once he agreed to stay home though, "You know Jake, we really should have just stayed in bed today, see? Then none of this would have happened." After a brief pause I added jokingly, "See? This is why you should always listen to me," and I couldn't help but chuckle as I was saying it.

"Oh sure, I see, you did this on purpose didn't you?" he said while mussing up my hair a bit. "I guess I'll have to keep an eye on you sly little devil."

At least now we both could hang out at home together all day and just relax, although I had other things in mind personally. I tilted my head downward and then looked upward through my lashes coyly at Jacob, "So Jake, what do you think about taking a little nap?" I asked him cleverly. "I think it could do wonders for my poor injured head," I was really hamming this one up to get my way. Then I delicately batted my eyelashes at him and I could feel the color rushing into my cheeks.

Jacob couldn't resist my charms, I had him like putty in my hands. He quickly, but gently lifted me into his arms and carried me back to the bedroom where he carefully placed me on the bed. He then laid down next to me and began softly kissing me, just sweet and subtle kisses. He was careful not to be too forceful with me because of my head injury. I was in heaven as he began to kiss my neck, lightly running his tongue along my earlobe and then blowing on it, giving it that hot and then cold sensation that sent shivers down my spine. I placed my hands on each side of his face and pulled him upward to give him a long, seductive, passionate kiss and then began to kiss and nibble gently on his neck. I reached down and pulled his shirt up and then over his head to speed things along, which he then followed my lead and did the same for me. Then I decided it was time for me to take control a little bit more so I directed him to lay on his back and I climbed on top of him and couldn't help but marvel at his perfect body. As I leaned down to kiss him again I ran my fingers along the muscles on his chest and arms and looked down at him, my eyes heavy lidded with passion and lust, biting my lower lip as I stared into his eyes. His were hungry with animal desire as well and I knew that he couldn't wait to tear the rest of our clothes off.

While I was kissing him, he put his arms around me, running them along my back and making their way to my bra strap. He undid the clasp with the ease of a well practiced professional and then quickly rolled me over onto my back. Once he had me back where he wanted me, with one hand undoing my jeans and the other cupping one of my breasts, he nuzzled my neck some more and then worked his mouth downward, taking adequate time to suckle each nipple and while doing so he was also working to pull my jeans down. I pulled him back upward once again and gently pushed him to lay beside me so that I could remove my jeans completely and then I reached down to undo his pants and then he pushed them down and off. Excited and wild eyed, his hands were everywhere, all over my body, running through my hair, as if they were exploring me for the first time. As if we had never made love, although we had so many times in the past. No matter how often we did it though, it always felt like the very first time with Jacob. He just always instinctively knew where all my buttons were and exactly how hard to push them. Before I knew it our bodies were moving together and I was in ecstasy as Jacob made hot, passionate, steamy, amazing lusty love to me until we were both exhausted and completely satisfied.

"I love you so much Jacob," I proclaimed to him as we gazed into each others' eyes in the aftermath of our lovemaking.

"And you know I love you Bells, always have, always will for as long as I live," he declared earnestly and lovingly.

We then intertwined ourself in each others' arms and peacefully fell asleep, apparantly we were taking that nap I suggested after all.

*****I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!*****


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN: Amnesia

As I lay sleeping comfortably and peacefully, a voice broke through my dream and I found myself slowly transitioning into a half awake but still half asleep state. "Bella love, can you hear me?" His voice was as smooth as silk and as calm and gentle as a midsummer breeze. _I must be dreaming again,_ I thought to myself. He had such a soothing voice, surely it must be a dream. No voice could possibly sound so perfect and beautiful, so controlled. Regardless of whether it was real or fake, it had broken through my deep sleep state of consciousness and I couldn't relax enough to drift back there so I allowed my waking mind and thought process take over. "Ah, Bella, you are waking up now, I can hear it in your breathing and in your heartbeat. I've missed you my love," that perfect voice again, I was becoming more alert now which made the voice sound even more clear and precise. At that point, I yawned, stretched my arms over my head and opened my eyes to find out who the owner of this voice was, if I had actually heard the voice and had not just imagined it. After all I thought, the voice seemed almost unreal to me in the first place.

Once my eyes were open I looked to my left and there was nothing, but then I turned to my right and there he was. The beautiful stranger from my dreams, Edward Cullen. I blinked several times, confused as to where I was and how I got there. "Edward?" I asked to be sure I had it right, that he was the one from my dream.

"Yes Bella?" he replied, obviously thinking I wanted to ask him a question rather than realizing I was making sure that Edward was in fact his name.

"I dreamed of you, it was so strange, and when I went to bed I was in my house in La Push, but how did I end up here? And where am I, to be more exact?" I quizzed him, so many questions that needed answering. And yet he stared at me as if he knew me, as if he had known me for years, and worse than that, as if I should know him. I would almost say that he looked a bit hurt by the fact that I had no idea what was going on. For some reason, he seemed to think we knew each other. I figured he must have had me mixed up with somebody else, but somebody else named Bella? That was highly unlikely. I couldn't say that I ever knew anyone else named Bella.

"Bella, you know who I am don't you? I mean, you know who we are to each other, right?" he asked with his voice full of concern and maybe a tinge of pain. It made me wince to hear the sadness in his otherwise perfect voice. I honestly had no idea though, so I couldn't even pretend to know what on earth he was talking about.

"I-I'm sorry Edward, but I don't know-or, I guess I don't remember. I can't imagine how I could possibly forget someone like you, but no matter how hard I try to figure it out, I'm just not getting anything," I explained. "Please don't take it personally!"

He looked as though he was processing what I had just explained to him, or what I had tried to explain to him and then all of a sudden, the hurt and pain began to wash away from his flawless facial features and a new look began to take over. It was sort of like confusion and concern, with a little bit of fear thrown in for good measure. He then spoke up again and said, "Bella, I'm going to have Carlisle come home immediately to check you out, you were running a high fever and you passed out several days ago. You've been unconscious ever since."

It wasn't until then that I noticed I was in a hospital style bed and had needles in me everywhere, I was on an IV and heart rate monitors and the whole nine yards. I didn't understand what was going on and I was becoming a bit nervous about the whole situation. My mind started to wander and I thought about stories I had heard in the past about people who end up in a shady hospital bed or worse, a bathtub with their organs missing. Renee had made mention of stuff like this in the past, something about the black market. I shuddered at the thought of it. At that moment, Edward said "Stay here Bella, I've got to make a phone call and then we can get to the bottom of this memory loss," and then in a flash he was outside of the room, barely within earshot, in the hallway.

I could hear his muffled voice saying, "Carlisle? I need you here right away, Bella is awake and-and I think she has a case of amnesia or something." Then complete silence as whoever this Carlisle person was obviously must have been saying something to Edward on the phone, so I couldn't hear what he had to say. And then Edward spoke again, "Okay, I'll see you when you arrive, thank you," and then I could hear him sigh loudly. I thought I could hear faint footsteps walking back and forth, back and forth, pacing outside the door. He was apparantly quite concerned about me. Perhaps I was getting a little bit carried away with myself on the whole black market organ thieving worries.

The pacing went on for a while and then there was a new voice, a female, this one soft and high pitched, like wind chimes. I remembered this voice also from my dream. "Edward!" sung the high voice in a concerned tone. "Is it true? She's finally woken up? I had a vision that she couldn't remember any of us, oh Edward, it's horrible and I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you!"

"Yes Alice, it's true," he responded in a somber and sullen manner. "She doesn't remember anything. She doesn't even know where she is, and I really hate to say this, but perhaps it's really in the best interests of Bella if we leave it that way."

"Oh Edward," Alice cried. "Don't say that. How could you say that? You certainly can't mean it, you'd be miserable for all eternity."

Edward then went into a long sorrowful explanation of exactly how serious he was, "Well Alice, if it's good for her, then that's what I want. Her well being and happiness means more to me than my own well being could ever matter. If she simply doesn't remember, it will be easier on her to go back to her normal life, one without vampires and monsters. I will stand back in the shadows watching over her, making sure she stays safe until the day she dies, when she's an old woman who has lived a long happy life. Only then I will, I don't know, I'll disappear into an oblivion. It will be as if I never existed, the way it was always intended to be."

"Well I know that can't be what you truly want, but you're a thick headed one Edward and there's no changing your mind once you've made it up," Alice retorted angrily. "But whatever, I'm going to talk to her right this instant. She is my best friend, she's practically my sister. And honestly Edward, I _don't_ believe that she is better off without us in her life. Deep down, I don't know how you could believe that either, but no matter, I'm going in there now whether you like it or not!"

No sooner than she had uttered the words, she was opening the door and walking in the room. She was petite, stunning, and pixie like. When she walked it was as if she was dancing. I admired her beauty and grace which I personally lacked. I'm clumsy and rather plain in comparison. She sashayed and pirouetted her way across the room in my direction and then stopped at the foot of my bed. "Hi Bella! It's so wonderful to see you awake again. I was worried sick about you when I couldn't see anything else in your future for a while there. I hope you'll try not to scare us all like that again," she teased, although the concern in her voice was apparant as was the obvious joy at seeing me among the living again. Or perhaps in this case, among the undead or whatever you'd like to call it.

"Alice? Is that your name?" I asked, to be sure that I had heard Edward correctly in the hallway.

"Yes that's right Bella. I know, you don't remember us right now, but I promise you will before you know it. We all love you so much Bella and we're gonna get you back into tip-top shape, you'll see," she assured me in her sing-songy voice.

"I'm sorry I can't remember anything, I wish I could. I'm sure I'm not worth being so upset over though, I hate to think that I've caused you or Edward any worry," I apologized abashedly.

"Oh it's not your fault Bella, please don't apologize to us. You didn't do anything wrong at all, you just got really sick and gave us a pretty big scare. You're with us again now though and we're gonna make sure you get all better," she proclaimed reassuringly.

Just then the door opened abruptly and in walked a man in a doctor's lab coat followed by Edward. "Well hello Bella! Edward says that you are experiencing some memory loss, so in case you are wondering, I'm Carlisle-otherwise known as Dr. Carlisle Cullen. I'm Edward and Alice' father and I am here to see if we can find out what might be causing the loss of memory, okay?" he explained in his wise, kind and gentle voice.

"O-kay," I responded tentatively. "What do I need to do then?"

"Just lay as still as possible while I check your vitals and then I'm going to want to do a vision and hearing screening, to start out with, things like that," he instructed me. "I also would like to see if we can get some food and water into you without the help of the feeding tubes and IV's now that you are awake."

He then proceeded to check my pulse, blood pressure, temperature and everything else under the sun. Once he had assured that everything was as it should be he began to remove the needles from my arms one by one. The only machine he left hooked up to me was the heart monitor whose steady beep chimed every few seconds while Carlisle commenced with the hearing and vision tests. All seemed to be going well and as it should and then in the middle of the vision test, as he was checking my pupils, I felt a sharp pain shoot through my entire body. At the same moment, the light shining in my eye caused a feeling a blindness. I started to panic and as I did I could hear the beeping of the heart rate monitor going into hyperspeed. I tried to control the anxiety but the fear took over and there was no stopping it. The beeping of the monitor got faster and faster and as it did, everything went darker and darker until I was shrouded in blackness and sinking deeper and deeper into my pillows, or so it seemed. I felt another convulsion of pain lash throughout my body and then the monitor suddenly flatlined and I was immersed in nothingness. It was pitch black and I was screaming inside my mind for someone to pull me out of this dark hole. But I only fell deeper into the black pit of emptiness......

*****I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!*****


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT: Encounter

"Bella, you've got a busy day girl, are you awake?" I was just waking up and a little out of it still, but I could clearly hear Renee outside my bedroom door.

"Yeah, I'm getting there, give me five more minutes, okay?" I responded groggily.

"Okay hun, lots of packing to do today though, and I'd like to take you out to lunch, just us girls one last time before you go-maybe go shopping or something?" she suggested hopefully. I really wasn't all that fond of shopping but I figured I would humor her since I was leaving for Forks the next day to stay with Charlie for a while. It was a good idea for everyone, that way Renee could travel around with Phil without having to worry about me, and I could get to know my dad again. It was the right thing to do, even if I wasn't thrilled about leaving Arizona to head to rainy Washington.

"That sounds fine, Mom. I just want to lay here a little longer first," I requested. She would be happy that I agreed to go hang out together for my last day in Arizona. I closed my eyes again for a moment and it felt so relaxing. _Five more minutes of sleep will be perfect_, I thought to myself and then I could feel myself dozing off.

"Bella, oh Bells? Hey sleepyhead, you've been out all afternoon," I heard the voice and I thought, _Oh no! All afternoon?! I've got to get packing and go out to lunch with Renee!_ I was suddenly in a panic and I responded hastily, "Renee, I'm so sorry! I must have been really tired today!" At that moment I heard gruff chuckling beside me and I opened my eyes to see Jacob with that big toothy grin of his, obviously amused.

"Renee huh? Well you know Bells, I've been mistaken for other people from time to time, but wow, that's a first," and then he burst into laughter.

"Oh Jacob, wow, I must've been dreaming I was in Arizona," I said while shaking my head at my silly confusion. "I've been asleep all afternoon though, really?"

"Yep, I guess I musta worn you out this morning," Jacob replied with a sly smile and then winked at me. I could feel the color rush into my cheeks at that comment as I remembered the events of the morning, after we got back home from the hospital. Well, at least neither of us had to work that day so it was a good time to catch up on some lost sleep. That was a good way to look at it I thought. "Anyway Bells, I'm gonna swing by my dad's place to see what he's up to, I won't be gone long, but that'll give you a chance to wake up a bit more." With that, he leaned down to kiss my forehead and gently stroke the side of my face. He was always so sweet and tender towards me, his friends were always teasing him about it, calling him whipped and silly things like that, but it didn't matter to him. Once again I couldn't help but think how lucky I am to have him in my life.

"Okay Jake, say hi to Billy for me and take your time if you want, it feels nice to just lay here and relax. I still don't feel very well rested, all these crazy dreams I've been having lately have made it hard to get a really good night's sleep," I told him, still being careful not to mention too many details about the beautiful vampire, Edward, from my dreams.

"Alright Bells, I'll see you later then honey," Jacob said and then headed out to go over to Billy's house.

I laid there in bed for some time longer, just relaxing with my eyes closed although I couldn't fall back to sleep completely. After a while I got this intense feeling of someone watching me, as if I could feel their eyes burning a hole into me so I quickly opened my eyes and looked around the room, but I saw nothing. I must have been imagining things again. The lack of sleep was starting to get to me I thought, but no matter, I'd get caught up on lost sleep eventually. You know what they say_, there'll be plenty of time for sleeping when you're dead_. After being startled by the feeling of someone staring at me, I was too wide awake to continue laying there in bed so I got up, threw some random clothes on and decided it was a good idea to go take a walk to clear my mind. I wrote a quick note for Jacob in case he got back before me and wondered where I was and then I put on some tennis shoes and headed out the front door.

Outside, the fresh clean air felt invigorating as it flowed into my lungs with each breath I took. I could feel the blood pumping through my veins as I walked briskly down the road and headed for the beginning of the hiker's trail that runs between La Push and Forks. When I made my way onto the trail I went in the direction of Forks, with no absolute plan of where I would go, just that direction in general. Before long I was leaving tribal lands and off the reservation, I knew this because Jacob and I liked to go for walks from time to time and he had pointed this spot out to me before, mentioning that this is where the reservation ended and the _pale face_ or non-tribal land begins. He always had amusement in his voice when he would tell me about old tribal legends and references to common folk locals such as _pale face_. They had some interesting stories too, most of them didn't make a lot of sense to me, but I still enjoyed hearing the tales.

As I walked along the path through the trees I could have sworn I heard something not too far behind me. I cautiously turned to look around, there was nothing there but a bunch of trees though, so I turned back around and continued walking in the same direction I had been. I strolled along for a while and then I noticed a baby bunny running across the path and into the trees. I followed the small creature with my eyes as it made it's way into the woods and then it was gone. I brought my focus back to the trail ahead of me and up ahead in the distance, I saw a cloaked figure standing perfectly still in the middle of the path. It was as if they were waiting for me to come along. I knew I should turn around right then and go back home as fast as my legs would carry me, but a burning curiousity gnawed at my brain and all but forced me to continue in the direction I was headed, so I moved myself ahead, closer and closer to the cloaked being in the center of the pathway.

I stopped when I was about a mere five feet in front of the cloaked man. He had the palest skin I had ever seen, it was almost translucent. Even more startling was the fact that his eyes were blood red and wild looking. He made no motion to approach me, but in a voice thick with an ancient Italian accent, he spoke slowly, "Isabella Swan," not as though he was asking my name, but stating that it was my name. "I have heard a great many enchanting stories about you my dear. It is my pleasure to finally meet your acquaintance."

Only then, he seemed not to step forward towards me, but rather it was as if he floated towards me. I wasn't sure if that's just because the long cloak covered his feet and the illusion of not being able to see him taking steps made it seem as though he hadn't, or if he actually did in fact float in my direction. Either way, he stopped directly in front of me and held out his pale hand in what I suspected was an offer to greet me with a handshake, "Do not be afraid Bella, I do not aim to harm you in any way. I am Aro and I just wanted to meet you in the flesh to examine your mind if you would not object. Please Bella, take my hand if you would be so kind."

He still had his hand extended towards me, so in light of what he had just said, although the warning signals were still going off in my mind telling me to turn around and run as fast and as far as I could, I absolutely could not force myself to do so. Instead I slowly held out my hand towards his and when I did, he held my hand between both of his and closed his eyes. I couldn't help but jump a little when I felt his cold hands around mine. They were unnaturally icy, but then again, nothing about him looked to be what I would call natural.

He kept his eyes closed with my hand between his for what seemed like an eternity and his face looked to be deep in thought and concentration. When he finally opened them again, he stared at me with a look of wonder on his face and the corners of his mouth turned up into a slight smile, "Well, well, well my dear, this is very compelling indeed. I had heard the stories before but I would not have ever believed unless I had seen it for myself. Though now that I think of it, more accurately, it was what I did not see that truly surprises me." I had no idea what he could possibly be talking about and he must have noticed the dumbfounded look on my face because he supplemented, "Do you realize Isabella that you are a very special person?" I simply shook my head in response, I did not know what he was going on about, so he continued on, "Well you certainly are special. I realize that you have no idea who I am, where I am from, why I am here and probably what I am for that matter. I am from Italy, you may have deciphered that by my accent, and I am the leader of a very important society back in my homeland. Several members of my society, myself included, have been blessed with certain _gifts_, and the very power of our society lies in these gifts we posess. Is this making any sense to you so far?"

"Sorta-not really," I responded, obviously perplexed by what he was saying to me.

Nevertheless, he continued on yet again, "Well, now that I have explained the who, where and the what, I will explain the why. By that I am meaning why I am here, of course," he then paused to make sure I was following carefully and when he was satisfied that I was paying close attention, he spoke very intently. "I mentioned before that I am the holder of one of these gifts. The way my gift works is that when I touch someone, I am able to see all of their thoughts. Past, present and future included. It works as a very effective lie detector of sorts, so you see, in general there is noone who is able to keep anything from me that I could possibly want to know. For instance, I could ask someone if they intend to do something in the future and if they tell me they do but do not truly intend to do so with no reservations, I will know. Are you following so far?"

I nodded in response since I was basically getting what he was saying about himself, although it seemed fairly odd to me that anyone could possess this ability. Again though, Aro was a very odd and mysterious person altogether from what I had gathered so far. "Good," he continued. "Now I have described my gift, how it works and surely you can see how this would be a valuable thing. The fact of the matter is that there are other people who posess these gifts, the gifts are all slightly different from one another, some _extremely_ different from one another. Many who have gifts like these are people who are not members of my society. I aim to collect these gifted people and initiate them to become members if they so choose." Once again he paused and was completely still while I went over everything in my mind that he had told me. After a few moments, he then asked, "What do you think of this my child?"

I wasn't sure exactly what he was asking me or what any of this had anything to do with me, but I responded "It's all very-captivating I guess, but I'm just confused by how this could possibly relate to me in any way, shape or form. I'm sure you wouldn't be telling me this just to pass the time, so how do I fit in here?"

"You are exceptional Bella," he explained. "And you do not even seem to know it yet. So I am going to tell you what makes you so special. It had come to my attention Isabella, that you carry one of these gifts. A very rare and exceptional gift indeed. It is highly uncommon for anyone to posess the power that you do. I told you how I can, just by touching someone, a handshake for instance, be able to know all of their thoughts. Well, this ability of mine has worked on every other person I have ever met in my very long lifetime. Everyone except for you. Your thoughts remain a mystery!" he said with delight in his ancient voice. Then he went on "I have only ever heard of one other person having a similar gift to yours and they are six feet underground somewhere. I never had the pleasure of meeting their acquaintance while they were still among us."

At this I tried to see how this ability of mine, if you wanted to call it that, could really be considered a gift at all. So he couldn't read my thoughts, that didn't seem too exciting to me. "So are you sure this doesn't just mean there's something wrong with me, maybe something wrong with my mind?" I asked him.

He began to laugh at my query and said, "Oh no my child, there is certainly nothing wrong with you or your mind. On the contrary there is something very right with your mind. You posess the ability to keep others from being able to read your thoughts at will. That is the one basic fact that is known about your ability right this very moment. Of course it could go much deeper and there may be a lot more to it than we know about right now. It may be something that you just need to work on to find out your full potential, we do not know for sure just yet. However, in and of itself, your being able to block gifted ones like myself from being able to know your thoughts is a valuable enough quality to us that I, and my other fellow members of our sacred society, would like to invite you to join us. Please say that you will join us my child, or at least will consider it? I assure you that your initiation would not go unrewarded. In fact, great rewards do go to those who join. What do you say Bella?"

This was certainly quite the shock to me and I didn't know what to say. How do you respond to something like this? I wasn't even sure what the deal was with this sacred society as he called it, so how do you accept an offer without really knowing all the details? I could see that Aro was obviously someone of great respect and was therefore use to being treated as such, so as politely as I could manage, I told him, "You know Aro, this sounds like it is a great honor to be asked to join your society since it seems to have such restricted membership and perhaps a veil of secrecy shrouding it, but I just don't know that I'm right for it either. Certainly I think you're giving me alot more credit than I deserve for this ability of mine. It doesn't seem so special to me, but what do I know about all that stuff anyway? Besides all that, I don't know how I would handle moving so far away from all my friends and family. Italy is a long ways away from Washington, you know?"

Aro nodded in recognition of my response and said, "I can surely understand your hesitation to jump right in with both feet, however, I do hope you would be so kind as to consider it at the very least. Perhaps take a while to contemplate it, put some serious thought into it and then I could meet up with you again when you have decided for sure. What say you my dear?"

I thought about this for a moment and decided that although I had no desire to go away to Italy to join some secret society, that it might be in my best interest to humor him at least and just agree to consider it, "Okay Aro, I can do that, give me a little bit of time though, it's an awful big decision and I should be clear with you that right at the moment I don't think it's entirely likely that I will accept the offer, as great as the offer may be, but I will show you the courtesy of considering all aspects of it." I wanted to seem compromising but at the same time I felt the need to be honest about the fact that I wasn't thinking I was going to be likely to accept. He seemed to be satisfied with my answer anyway. He nodded, held out his hand once again, this time it really was just to shake my hand since he now knew he could not see my thoughts, so I politely shook his hand and thanked him for the offer, "Well Aro, it was interesting meeting you to say the least and I thank you for your gracious offer."

He cordially responded, "It was my pleasure finally meeting you Isabella, one thing I would like to warn you of though before I go, be sure not to mention the details of this encounter to anyone. The repercussions could be drastic and I would hate to see anything happen to someone with talent such as yours so I do hope you will heed my warning," he then shot a very intense look at me so that I would understand the urgency of his warning. "Until we meet again, be well."

Just then I heard a noise behind me that startled me. I craned my neck to look around but yet again nothing was there, so I turned back to ask Aro when and where we should meet up again, but once I had turned to look again, he had vanished, as if into thin air. He disappeared just as mysteriously as he had first appeared on the path. It had seemed like only minutes that I had spent speaking with Aro on the trail in the woods between Forks and La Push, but somehow it was already beginning to get dark. I decided it was a good time to head back home where Jacob was probably waiting by now.

*****I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!*****


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE: Explanation

As I made my way back down the trail towards my house in La Push it seemed to take forever and the light was fading faster from daylight into twilight. I could see the stars beginning to light up the sky here and there like little beacons shining through the treetops. I trudged onward and finally I could see the end of the trail leading to the road that brings me home. I was so glad to be almost back after my long and eventful walk. As I trodded down the road towards my house, I began to wonder if I hadn't just imagined the whole encounter with Aro. Perhaps I somehow managed to pass out or got knocked out, maybe I suffered more of a concussion from my kitchen mishap than I had thought. I really needed to learn to stop being so clumsy, if only it were that easy to just turn it off with the flip of a switch, so to speak. Unfortunately I must have been born with two left feet because I had been accident prone for as long as I could remember. My poor parents were constantly dealing with mending my scratches, scrapes, cuts, bruises, burns, sprains and broken bones ever since I was just a little kid. Anyway, I was writing off the encounter as a hallucination or nightmare of some kind since there was just no way it could have been real. It made no sense and besides, if it wasn't real, I surely couldn't go mentioning anything about it to anyone so the obvious and more sane plan was to tell Jake that I must have passed out or something like that during my walk. The downside to telling him this was that he would definitely want to take me back to the hospital to get me checked out again and make sure I really was okay. But this was the only option I had, unless I somehow made it home before him, I knew that wasn't likely though. It was just so embarrassing, constantly having to go to the hospital with all my stupid emergencies but oh well, I would deal with it if that was the way it had to be.

Once the house was in plain sight, I saw my truck in the driveway and Jake's Volkswagen was right next to it. Great, he was home before me as I suspected he would be. I wasn't looking forward to another trip to the doctor, but nevertheless, I continued on my way up the driveway, across the path to the porch and into the sliding glass door in the kitchen. "Hey Jake," I said as I entered the house. I could hear the television in the living room so I followed the sound and found Jacob dozing in the armchair. Lucky me, he was passed out. I thought that hopefully he had been sleeping for a while, that way he wouldn't realize how long I had been gone on my walk and therefore wouldn't be worried about me and want to take me to the hospital. I turned around and quietly tip-toed out of the living room but before I could clear the doorway I heard Jacob say, "Hey Bells! Where ya' been? I waited for hours for you to get home but you didn't show so I dozed off."

"Oh, just walking along the hiking trail and I guess I lost track of time or something," I explained, trying to brush it off as nothing.

"Well where the hell did you walk to, Timbuktu?" he asked jokingly.

"I was just walking towards Forks and then I turned around and headed back. I didn't have any definite idea of where I was walking to, I just wanted some fresh air and a good brisk walk always does a body good." Still trying to play it off like nothing crazy went down while I was gone.

"Huh," Jacob mused. "Well for as long as you were gone, you certainly should have made it to Forks, did you try to stop by Charlie's?"

"Nah, I didn't make it to Forks. I'm not sure how it took me so long, just all of a sudden it was dark out. I thought I was walking pretty quickly but I did stop to rest a little," I interjected, trying to be very vague about the whole thing.

"Bells, you know you're a horrible liar, right? What's up, what took so long?" Jacob chided. He totally had me figured out that I wasn't exactly telling him everything, so at this point I knew I had to fess up to something, and since I couldn't bring up the encounter with Aro-if that ever really happened in the first place, I had to tell him the only other thing I could, which was the most likely scenario of what happened anyway.

"Okay Jake, well I didn't want to tell you this because I didn't want you to worry about me, but I think I might have blacked out or passed out. Maybe an after effect of my concussion. I don't know, but it was all I could think of when it suddenly started getting dark." I was being as honest as I possibly could given the current circumstances, "I don't actually remember passing out though and I don't recall waking up and being on the ground or anything either, but it's the only thing I can imagine."

Jacob looked at me somewhat suspiciously and mulled over my explanation for a few minutes, but then he seemed to find it acceptable and responded, "Well damn Bells, you know what this means?"

I groaned in response and Jacob laughed and said, "Yep, that's right, let's go back to your favorite place in the world."

I knew there was no sense in arguing with him over this so I grabbed my purse and we both headed to his car. This time on the way to the hospital he didn't drive quite so fast since I wasn't amidst a dire emergency. I stared out the window as usual and half expected to have an experience like I had earlier that morning but there were no monsters that I was aware of, nothing in my sight at least, so that was a relief. We got to the hospital and walked up to the check-in desk for the second time that day. It was a different shift though, so it wasn't the same lady from our morning visit who had been suspiciously eyeballing Jacob. We went through the usual check-in process though, mentioning the fact that we were return visitors today and explaining the scenario of my mishap once again. She asked us to wait in the chairs as per normal and we waited quietly, myself slightly annoyed about having to be here again as well as feeling my usual embarassment about it.

A few minutes later an orderly was at the emergency room door and called my name to come back and get examined again, "Isabella Swan?" I briskly got up and headed that direction, the orderly then smiled and said "Hello Ms. Swan, please come with me." He led me through the door and back through the hallway into one of the emergency units, looking at my chart he said, "I see this is your second visit today, so I'm sure you know the routine. We'll need to take your vitals and all that and then a doctor will be with you shortly, okay?" I nodded my head in response and then my vitals signs got checked, questions asked, etcetera, etcetera and then the orderly left me in the room to wait for the doctor. I was zoning off in my own little world when the door swung open and in strolled the doctor. It was a different doctor than the one who stitched me up in the morning during my previous visit.

He looked young for a doctor, blonde hair and the most interesting eyes. There was something familiar about him but I couldn't put my finger on it. He smiled at me showing perfect straight white teeth, and then he seemed to notice the bewildered look on my face, "Bella, hello! So you hit your head this morning did you? I see you got stitched up already though and the stitches seem to all still be in place. What brings you back in this evening?" How odd, everyone else addressed me as Isabella unless I informed them to please call me Bella. I hadn't remembered asking him to call me Bella though. Huh, well, I'm sure that Bella is a common nickname for Isabella, nothing to get all worked up about that's for sure. Also, why didn't he introduce himself to me? Normally the doctor will let you know his name, he hadn't greeted me with the usual doctor's greeting though. I was going back and forth about this in my mind for a bit when the doctor asked me again, "Bella? What brings you back in this evening? It's too early to be the follow up appointment, so are you having complications related to your injury?"

I was preparing to answer his question when I suddenly saw his name tag. I could see plain as day that it said 'Dr. Cullen', I shook my head a few times and looked again to make sure I was reading it right, sure enough that's what it said. I then remembered my dream and brought up a vague image of his face I had buried down in the depths of my mind. "Carlisle?" I asked him, to be sure I was remembering correctly, "Is that your name, Carlisle Cullen?"

"Well Bella, of course that's my name. You know that, I'm your father-in-law after all, how could you forget?" I was in complete and utter shock by the bombshell he had just dropped on me.

I practically exploded at him, "Father-in-law? WHAT?! I've never been married in my life, who are you and why have I been having these strange dreams? I don't understand what is going on, something is wrong with me, something is seriously wrong!"

I began crying hysterically, my head buried in my arms, sobbing heavily and repeatedly. I stayed like that for what felt like an eternity and then I looked up and I was alone again. Where could the doctor have gone? I was so disoriented and frightened by my state of mind which was falling apart at the seams day by day, hour by hour. Was I losing my mind? As horrified as it made me to think that, really it made more sense than anything else I could come up with.

I sat there waiting quietly and anxiously in the room for the doctor to come back and finally the door swung open again but a different doctor came through into the room. A woman this time, I was too out of it to pay attention when she greeted me with her name. She asked me why I was there, I mentioned my possible fainting spell or coma aftershock, whatever that might be called, and she decided it was best if they keep me overnight so they could observe me in case I passed out again or anything. Rather than keep me in the ER, they wanted to get me set up in a regular room with a more comfortable bed and nurses on staff to tend to any needs I might have. She then advised me to head back the check-in desk to get the information on where my room would be.

I went back out to the waiting area to let Jacob know what was going on and he walked up to the check-in desk with me where we got the necessary information and then he escorted me to the floor I would be staying on overnight. Jacob wanted to stay with me but I insisted he go home so he could get a good night's sleep in our comfortable bed. There was no need for him to sleep uncomfortably all night long in a hospital room visitor's chair that was much too small for him to begin with. He wasn't having it at first and argued with me for a while but finally he caved and I convinced him to sleep comfortably at home.

"Okay Bells, I'll go home then since you're such an incredible pain in my ass and won't take no for an answer," he said in a defeated tone. Following up in a more agressive manner, "But I'll be back first thing in the morning, you got that?" Then Jacob smiled at me with that amazing grin of his to let me know he wasn't actually upset with me, probably just annoyed that I wouldn't let him have his way. His way being that he would wake up with a horrid backache from sleeping in the chair. I didn't bother to tell him about my strange incident in the ER room, I was beginning to worry about my sanity and didn't want him to start thinking I was coocoo for cocoa puffs too. I decided that once I got home I would look on the internet for information about the hospital and try to find a roster of all the doctors who are employed there. I knew I had to get to the bottom of what was going on before somebody ends up throwing me in a loony bin for hysteria. Oh I was hysterical alright, but it was no laughing matter.

*****I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!*****


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